President Bush Appoints Drug Warriors To High
Administration Positions

The Bush administration nominated Karen Tandy, an Assistant US
Attorney and longtime DOJ employee, was nominated to be
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Her
confirmation hearing was held in late June 2003. As reported in
The Nation online (
"A New Hardliner At The DEA") in a column by
Jason Vest dated July 14, 2003,
"Already approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee after
an all but unnoticed, if not farcical, confirmation hearing
late last month, the Administration evidently hopes Tandy's
nomination will next clear the full Senate with as little
attention or debate as possible. Lost in the shuffle has been
any meaningful examination of dubious policy initiatives and
prosecutions Tandy has been involved in over the past twenty
years. According to drug-reform activists, the nomination of
Tandy--a career Justice Department prosecutor and administrator
whose most recent assignments have included busting mail-order
bong sellers and those involved in Oregon and California's
state-sanctioned medical marijuana programs--is a clear signal
from the Administration that it will give no quarter on any aspect
of marijuana policy. This view is also echoed by veteran defense
attorneys who have tangled with Tandy; they marvel at the lack
of scrutiny her nomination has received, both in the press and
on Capitol Hill."

Vest notes that at least a couple of senators have expressed
some concern over Tandy because of the medical marijuana issue.
One of them -- Sen. Richard Durbin
(D-IL) -- has gone on record opposing the nomination.
"So far, only Senator Richard Durbin has gone on record
as opposed to Tandy's nomination; in response to his
written queries, not only did Tandy demonstrate ignorance of
key policy studies but she 'didn't back off an inch,'
as Durbin put it, from the view that the DEA should proceed apace
with medical marijuana raids. California Democrat Dianne Feinstein
has also expressed misgivings about Tandy, observing that the
nominee 'doesn't seem amenable to listening'
to concerns about federal law enforcement and state-sanctioned
medical marijuana."

Some of the written queries posed by Sen. Durbin to the nominee were
reprinted in a column by Bill Berkowitz on the WorkingForChange.com
website,
"Tandy Won't Be Dandy For Medical Marijuana,"
posted July 16, 2003. Berkowitz reports:
"Here are a few of Karen Tandy:s responses to
questions submitted by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), as compiled
by the Marijuana Policy Project:
"On marijuana's medicinal benefits:
"'The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, has been accepted
as having medicinal value when processed into Marinol.
Marijuana itself, however, has not been shown to have
medicinal benefits; accordingly, I have no basis for believing
that marijuana, and specifically smoking marijuana, has any
such benefits.'
"On two authoritative government reports re marijuana's medical benefits:*
"*These are the 1999 Institute of Medicine report "Marijuana
and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," commissioned by the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the 1988
ruling of the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis
L. Young, both of which conclude that marijuana has medicinal
benefits and should be made available to patients who can benefit
from it.
"'I am not personally familiar with the sources you cite
discussing the putative 'medicinal benefits of marijuana.''
"On enforcing federal laws against state-approved medical
marijuana providers:
"'DEA's priorities should reflect the need to encourage adherance
[sic] to the law. ... [I]t is not improper for the government to
prosecute individuals who make a point of disobeying the law,
and encouraging others to disobey it, even if the disobedience
is said to be for reasons of conscience.'
"On DEA raids on state-approved medical marijuana patients and
providers:
"'If I am confirmed as Administrator of the DEA, it will
be my
duty to see to the uniform enforcement of federal law. I do
not believe it would be consistent with that duty for me to
support a moratorium on enforcement of this law, or any law,
in selected areas of the country.'"

DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson was confirmed to a new
position in the Homeland Security Agency in Jan. 2003. The
The Associated Press News Service reported on Jan. 23, 2003
(
"Panel OKs Hutchinson For Security Post") that
"The Senate on Thursday confirmed Asa Hutchinson as
undersecretary of the new Homeland Security Department, where his
responsibilities will range from border control to aviation
security. Hutchinson is currently head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration. His voice-vote approval came hours after he was
approved by the Senate Commerce Committee, a day after the Senate
approved former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge to head the
department and a day before the agency formally comes into
being."

According to AP,
"Hutchinson, 52, will be in charge of border and
transportation security, overseeing such agencies as the Customs
Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the
federal law enforcement training center."

Note:
The full Senate on the evening of Dec. 5 confirmed President
Bush's choice as 'drug czar.'
The Senate Judiciary Committee had voted 14-5
to send the nomination of John Walters as ONDCP chief to the floor.
Voting
against the Walters nomination in committee were:
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-DE
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-MA
For a full listing of Judiciary Committee members, including
their email addresses, check the
Senate Judiciary Committee website.

The hearing by Senate Judiciary Committee
on the John Walters Nomination was held on
Wednesday, October 10, 2001 at 11am. As reported by Reuters
wire service on Oct. 10, 2001 (
"Bush's Choice As 'Drug Czar' Receives
Heavy Fire"),
"John Walters, President Bush's nominee to head the U.S.
Office of National Drug Control Policy, came under Democratic
fire on Thursday at his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Sen.
Joseph Biden of Delaware, both Democrats, openly challenged
Walter's drug-fighting philosophy." According to
Reuters, "Leahy said he does not know how many senators
share his concerns about Walters, but wants the nominee to answer
a number of questions in writing before his panel votes on whether
to send the nomination to the Senate for confirmation. ...
'I do not doubt that John Walters has thought seriously
about our nation's drug problems, but I do doubt the
conclusions that he has reached and forcefully expressed on
issues ranging from drug treatment to interdiction to sentencing
issues,' Leahy said."

Lawmakers outside the Senate have expressed their opposition to
the Walters nomination.
As
the Reuters report notes, "Last week, about two dozen
members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the U.S. House
of Representatives urged the Senate to reject the Walters'
nomination. In a letter to senators, they wrote: 'At a
time that policy-makers at all levels of government are seeking
to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system,
John Walters denies that such disparities even exist.
John Walters has a long record in opposition to important
reforms that could significantly reduce racial disparities
in the criminal justice system,'"

John P. Walters Officially Named As Bush Choice For
Director Of US Drug Policy Office

On May 10, 2001, President Bush announced his choice for
Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
(the "Drug Czar"). As had been rumored since
mid-April, the president selected John P. Walters, a longtime
assistant to the first Drug Czar, William Bennett.

The choice
has been roundly criticized in the media, as well as by his
most recent predecessor, retired General Barry McCaffrey.
As the Houston Chronicle reported on April 24, 2001,
"'I think he's focused too much on interdiction.
I hope he educates himself carefully on prevention and treatment
as an essential part of this strategy,' McCaffrey said
of Walters on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday. McCaffrey also
criticized Walters for opposing an expensive series of media
advertisements paid by the drug control policy office as an
anti-drug effort." (
"Former William Bennett Aide Will Be Drug Czar,
Sources Say," by Michael
Hedges, Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2001)

The writer and researcher Michael Massing wrote a tremendous
piece for the Washington Post on the appointment (
"A Look At The Drug War's Future: The Wrong Man
And The Wrong Direction," May 6, 2001). In it,
Massing wrote "Now the president has indicated his
choice: John P. Walters. And he seems to be exactly the
wrong man for the job. That's because, if Walters's
background is any guide, he will put prosecution before
prevention, tougher laws before treatment." Massing goes
on to point out that:
"Back in Washington, Walters helped fashion the Andean
Strategy, a five-year, $2 billion program to provide the
region's officials the military and economic assistance they
needed to fight the drug trade. The Andean plan --
Walters's chief legacy at ONDCP -- brought about a major
escalation in the U.S. military's involvement in the drug war.
It marked the start of the Peruvian air force's shoot-down
policy that resulted in last month's attack on an American
missionary plane. And it was a forerunner of Plan Colombia,
Washington's $1.3 billion program to fight cocaine production
there. Overall, in the decade since Walters's handiwork
was adopted, the United States has spent many billions of dollars
trying to stem the flow of drugs into this country.
"It hasn't worked. Today, according to recent government
studies, cocaine is cheaper and more plentiful here than ever
before. So is heroin. Marijuana is peddled in shopping malls,
schoolyards and urban parks across America, and methamphetamine
has become a fixture in rural and working-class communities in
the western United States. By now, even many drug war hawks have
begun to acknowledge the futility of our effort to keep drugs
out of the country and to recognize that the true root of
our problem is demand."

Unfortunately, as Massing points out, Mr. Walters is not one
of those. He writes, "Since leaving ONDCP, Walters has
directed both the New Citizenship Project and the Philanthropy
Roundtable and appeared before Congress more than a dozen times
to talk about drug policy. Reading his statements, I was struck
by their partisan and hawkish tone. At a hearing in July 1996,
for instance, he attacked the Clinton administration for attempting
to provide more treatment for hard-core users. This
'ineffectual policy," he declared, was 'the
latest manifestation of the liberals' commitment to a
'therapeutic state' in which the government serves
as the agent of personal rehabilitation.' Walters also
expressed unbending support for tough penalties for drug offenses
and dismissed the idea that there are too many low-level drug
offenders in prisons. An
'all-too-common myth,' he called it." Mr. Walters
seems to continue to hold these views, as this op-ed
published under his byline in
the Weekly Standard on March 6, 2001, "Drug Wars,"
indicates.

As reported in the Albuquerque Journal on Sept. 11, 2001
("Johnson, DEA Talk Dope"),
"Two baby boomer guys, children of the 1960s, got together
in Albuquerque on Monday to talk about drugs. But Gary Johnson,
New Mexico's governor, and Asa Hutchinson, administrator
of the nation's Drug Enforcement Administration - both
trim Republicans with blue suits and conservative haircuts -
could not have been farther apart on the direction the
country's drug policies should take. In an hourlong national
radio debate, Johnson, a 48-year-old former pot smoker, hammered
home the message that has become his crusade: Marijuana is
not as harmful as alcohol and government resources are wasted
in arresting and jailing pot smokers who otherwise do not break
the law."

The debate between Governor Johnson and
DEA Administrator Hutchinson has been posted online by
The Justice Talking
Show. To listen to streaming audio of the debate, as well as
check out some of their other resources,
Click Here.

The nomination of
Congressman Asa Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, as
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration
was
confirmed by the full Senate on Wednesday, August 1. The
Associated Press reported (
"Senate Confirms New DEA Chief")
that "At his confirmation hearing, Hutchinson
told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the battle against drug
use was 'a noble purpose worthy of a great crusade.'"
The
voice vote was 98-1 in favor.

The AP reported that
"The lone dissenting vote came from Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.,
who said he disagreed with Hutchinson's support of 'the
escalation of the drug war in Colombia.'
'He also evidenced no understanding of the effect on our
criminal justice and our penal system of draconian fixed sentencing
for possession of small amount of drugs,' Dayton continued.
'And he rejected outright the possibility of decriminalization
of marijuana for strictly medicinal purposes.' Not voting was
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz."

Rep. Hutchinson had been endorsed by the Judiciary Committee
ranking members. According to the
AP story, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican
on the committee, said "'I have every confidence he will
do a terrific job.'" And Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democrat of
Vermont, said "'I have a great deal of respect of
him. Every time I dealt with him, he was absolutely truthful
with me. He never broke his word to me, he never broke a commitment
to me.'"

In early 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft laid out his plans for
the Justice Department under the Bush Administration.
The
Washington Post reports that
AG Ashcroft recently outlined his top priorities to senior
staffers at the Justice Department.
"Violence, Teen Drug Use Are
Ashcroft Priorities"(. According to the
Post, "reducing gun violence, opposing
teen drug use and battling discrimination against women
and minorities in housing and voting will be his key
early goals."